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CC, your cuke pictures make me laugh! I know you probably want to cry, but it's amazing how we try and try and then we end up with something that looks like an alien mutation.

My tomatoes did NOT have a good year this year. Fortunately I still have tomatoes in the freezer from last summer. LOL. But even the volunteers last summer were producing like crazy, this year, not really. I say not really because the cherry tomatoes seem to be producing well. I'm also finding half eaten tomatoes, so between not doing well and then getting eaten anyway, I'm not expecting much in the tomato department. And still not a single hornworm! Maybe even they knew it was a bust crop?

Tonight for dinner I sauteed kale, yellow squash, garlic, and onion (one of my walking onions - they're very small) in olive oil. Yum. Of course, anything is good sauteed with onion and olive oil.

Oh, and forget peppers this year. They didn't happen, but I knew that early on. And I've gotten 3 tiny eggplants. So yeah, it seems to have been a not so good summer for the hots.

I'm losing tom plants one by one to many different things and in many different circumstances. So I've just been yanking them out. There hasn't been much growth, if any, on the remaining plants. I think it's just been too cool for them.

And now a pepper plant is on the way out. My cukes & summer squashes seem to be hanging in there but if we don't get some warmer weather soon I don't know how long they'll keep going. The winter squashes are still only about 3 inches & not budging.

So, even tho I'm loving this weather, theres' something to be said for heat waves on Cape Cod.

Oh, and all the fruits on my 2 varieties of cukes are curved and point UP:

Molly, I don't think my Molly squash has ribs. But it's looking good! What do you think about it?

CC

CC, I feel your pain. My cukes in Maynard are curling up as well. My second plant is just starting to flower and the leaves are dying off. Nights in high 50s are slowing things down significantly.

Well, I dug around google a little and it looks like curling cucumbers can be a result of incomplete pollination. Of course, other sites say it could be lack of watering. And some other things. But most seem to point to incomplete pollination.

camprn, the bull thistle you identified in my garden is actually beautiful now, blooming. I can't possibly remove it. The bumblebees love it, and I just found out it's (kind of) an edible too. http://www.eattheweeds.com/thistle-touch-me-not-but-add-butter-2/

If it's an edible, then technically it fits in the veggie garden. lol.

@NHGardener wrote:camprn, the bull thistle you identified in my garden is actually beautiful now, blooming. I can't possibly remove it. The bumblebees love it, and I just found out it's (kind of) an edible too. http://www.eattheweeds.com/thistle-touch-me-not-but-add-butter-2/

If it's an edible, then technically it fits in the veggie garden. lol.

nice! Hooray for keeping the pollinators in the garden. Just keep an eye out for babies next spring.

If anyone wants to attract bees, plant some Monarda (bee balm). It comes back every year and spreads easily and the bees love it. Put a patch in a corner of your yard not far from the veggies. I have so many bees in my Monarda the hummers keep their distance so I had to move their feeders to other poles away from them.

If anyone wants to attract bees, plant some Monarda (bee balm). It comes back every year and spreads easily and the bees love it. Put a patch in a corner of your yard not far from the veggies. I have so many bees in my Monarda the hummers keep their distance so I had to move their feeders to other poles away from them.

#1 - Wow camprn. Those are beautiful photos!

#2 - QB thanks for the tip on Monarda. I have done a little reading on Monarda and I see that it is best to plant in fall. In the course of looking up Monarda, I was able to identify the mysterious Orange Glory Butterfly Milkweed that is growing wild behind our house. That mystery has been plaguing us for several weeks now.

Cold Mass weather - last night's temp here was 54. I've got dozens of tomatoes just sitting waiting for warmer weather that does seem to be coming. An Orange Blaze pepper plant that has a few full size and a dozen growing peppers that I'm saddened will never get to full size, never mind color

On a brighter side, my fall plantings are happy to have cooler temps. Provided temps don't continue get really low, should be a good fall harvest.